Rainiers Close Out Cheney In Style

It may not be one of the better seasons of Tacoma Rainiers baseball, but the 2012 Rainiers closed out the home portion of the schedule in perfect fashion on Sunday afternoon.

In front of 7,128 fans on a pleasant but not-too-hot day, Tacoma hit a couple of home runs and had great pitching to earn a 2-1 victory over the Las Vegas 51s.

Alex Liddi hit a solo home run to left field in the first inning, and Carlos Peguero launched a towering drive off the top of the scoreboard in right-center for a solo home run in the second inning.

Tacoma starter D.J. Mitchell made the two runs stand up. The right-hander lasted 6.1 innings, giving up just three hits and one (unearned) run. Mitchell was only in trouble in one inning, the fifth, when a run scored and runners were at the corners with one out. He escaped that jam and settled in for the win.

Prior to the game, the Rainiers announced their team awards. Bobby LaFromboise won the Pitcher of the Year award, and he showed why on Sunday: he retired the final eight batters of the game, in order. He struck out the side in the eighth inning. LaFromboise lowered his season ERA to 1.46, and he kept his Cheney Stadium ERA at 0.00 in 23 innings. He’ll go into 2013 having never allowed a run at Cheney.

The other awards went to Hitter of the Year Luis Jimenez, and Carlos Triunfel took home the fielding award.

The attendance of 7,128 pushed Tacoma’s final season attendance up to 352,032. That’s the third-highest single-season attendance figure in franchise history – we thank you for coming out and supporting the team.

The season is not over yet. Tacoma finishes up with an eight-game road trip to Las Vegas and Fresno, and I’ll keep on posting updates here on the blog (note: this blog lives on during the off-season, too – check all winter for the latest player news and baseball links).

Tonight’s game is at 7:05 in Las Vegas, and you can listen to the game on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Andrew Carraway (5-7, 4.51) against Las Vegas RHP Sean O’Sullivan (14-5, 4.06).

Links:

We lead off with the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune, with quotes from D.J. Mitchell.

The All-PCL team was announced, and the Rainiers were shut out. I thought Luis Jimenez was going to win at designated hitter, but Jerry Sands of Albuquerque snuck in there instead – even though he never DH’d the entire season. Here is the article, and here is the whole team with stats. The major awards get announced throughout this week.

The Mariners got hosed by the Pale Hose in Chicago yesterday – well, actually it wasn’t the White Sox, it was the weather that got them, but I thought it would be fun to type “hosed by the Pale Hose.” And you know what? It was fun to type.

In the PCL, the Pacific-North tightened up last night – but is it too late? Reno lost to Fresno 6-3 when Xavier Nadyblasted a pair of dingers for the Grizzlies.

Colorado Springs pulled within three games of Reno by downing Tucson, 6-1. Reno wins the tiebreaker, so the Springs has to gain four games in eight days to win the division.

Like a Monty Python skit, Salt Lake is not dead yet. The Bees are four games out after knocking off Sacramento, 4-2. The other Luis Jimenez had a big three-run homer for the Bees.

Iowa crossed the 500,000 mark in attendance but lost again. PCL home run leader Mike Hessman blasted #31 for Oklahoma City.

This is incredible to me: New Orleans had 15 hits and drew seven walks – that’s 22 base runners – and scored *two* runs in a 7-2 loss at Omaha yesterday. The Zephyrs left 18 runners on base in a nine-inning game!

We have opposition to the new ballpark in El Paso, and they are using Fresno as an example. Fresno is the only city I’m aware of where a new ballpark did absolutely nothing to revitalize a city’s downtown.

It’s weird finishing up on the road – this is not normal; usually Tacoma closes the season at home on Labor Day weekend. I heard we are finishing at home next year.

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